1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to power management, and more particularly to a power management device and method of a wireless sensor network (WSN).
2. Description of Related Art
Fully-functional and semi-functional sensors are deployed in wireless sensor networks as network nodes. The fully-functional sensors can collect data, forward data, and communicate with a power management device of the wireless sensor network. The semi-functional sensors can only collect and forward data and communicate with other sensors as relay nodes.
Currently, there are two power management methods of wireless sensor networks:
1. The power management device sets a sleep cycle for network nodes, allowing nodes to take turns in sleeping and working
2. Network nodes periodically exchange information, and then change the information transfer paths of the wireless sensor network according to power information exchanged between network nodes.
The first method does not specifically consider the actual situation of each network node. That is, the first method is not based on the actual power of each network node and positional relationships between network nodes for dispatching power. Although the second method considers the actual power condition of each network node, the exchange of electricity involving each network node results in high energy consumption. In addition, a simple changing of the information transfer paths does not effectively reduce the power consumption of each network node.